


don't revoke me, breathe me in

by littlefirefly



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, Warming Up, implied spoilers for season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2147262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlefirefly/pseuds/littlefirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kieren starts to warm up, but Simon is still as cold as ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	don't revoke me, breathe me in

After the events of the 12th of December, the failed second Rising, Simon joined the Walker family for Christmas dinner, not even two weeks after the incident, the failed second Rising. Kieren and he pretended to eat their dinner as usual, and the night was spent laughing, exchanging gifts, chattering aimlessly as the night wore on tirelessly. Kieren's parents smiled to each other when they found their son pecking the other man on the lips when they thought they weren't looking, and Simon noticed. If the partially deceased man could have felt, perhaps he would have once called the atmosphere warm; but, then again, he'd never really felt warmth even in life. It was something foreign to him.

But, much to his dismay, it's no longer foreign to Kieren.

They're quiet about the whole ordeal, of course.

They are both painfully aware of the inevitable—that Kieren is, in fact, warming up. Slow a process as it may be, the signs are obvious: how he's come to have frequent nosebleeds, when there should be no blood; how sometimes he has cravings, leading him to search for food in the refrigerator that he once couldn't even stand to look at; how he's starting to sweat, starting to bruise, starting to feel the wind run through his fingers as he walks and the rain run down his pale, warming body. As the snow on the ground melts and the sun begins to show mercy on the cold ground below, Simon finds that his boyfriend—if that's even the proper term for it anymore, since they're both (mostly) undead, after all—is spending more time outside, in the woods, on the grass.

Now, of course, it's been months since December, since a month that most would consider cold but they have no words to compare it to, and Simon himself has shown no signs of warming. Kieren, of course, is still making remarkable progress—granted, he is much slower than Amy had been, but perhaps that's for the best, in the end.  
He senses it when they kiss. Senses how Kieren begins to run his hands through his hair, up his back, tugs his sweater and the denim of his jeans. To them, this is abnormal, _sensation_ is abnormal, but Kieren's silence about his newfound curiosity prompts Simon to follow suit.

"I want to paint you," Kieren whispers one day, as they lie quietly in Amy's bungalow which is no longer Amy's but is still _hers_ , as it lives and breathes her presence, who she once was and always will be. And Simon complies. While Kieren still lives in his own home with his family, he visits the bungalow often, and he once brought some of his supplies over should inspiration ever strike. So they sit in the white light of the living room, illuminated by the perpetually grey sky of Roarton—Simon on the couch, Kieren in a chair.

They remain quiet for a long time. That's how their relationship has been for some time now: warm gestures and kisses and love, but irrefutably long periods of silence that neither knows how, or perhaps doesn't want, to fill, whether it be out of apprehension or uncertainty or an unspoken fear, neither can tell. They're all wasted opportunities, these silences, and both of them are aware, but neither seems to have the willpower to do anything about them. Until, finally, Kieren speaks.

"I'll wait for you, you know."

Simon doesn't respond.

"When I finally warm up, that is. I'll wait for you so we can—so we can _live_ together."

A pause.

"... You know how I feel about living," Simon finally answers. And he can tell by the way Kieren stops painting, the way he seems to stop just about everything, as if his words had just put him on pause. It takes him a moment or two to collect himself and continue his work, his mouth barely moving as he speaks.

"I'm sure you'll change your mind sooner or later. You have me now. And anyway, aren't you living right now?"

Simon doesn't say anything, and Kieren will take that as his answer.

There's another long silence until, for once, Simon is the first to speak. "What if I don't warm up? What then?"

This time, Kieren doesn't falter.

"You will. I'll just have to keep waiting."


End file.
